http://calabashmusic.com/New Music From Javier Ruibal on Calabash Music2008-08-21T03:12:45ZThe Calabash Music Teamsupport@calabashmusic.comSaharahttp://javierruibal.calabashmusic.com/#album_618392006-12-12T07:40:55ZMusic from SaharaJAVIER RUIBAL – SECRETS AND LIVES We all have our secrets; little-known places we like to return to, a recipe, book or story we may or may not wish to share with others. Javier Ruibal had been one of mine. During many visits to Spain, I’ve amassed a large collection of delights and duds of Spanish music, and it was some time in the 1980s that I came across this wonderful singer-songwriter from Cádiz. I can’t remember how; maybe a lucky dip, a tip-off or following in some musician’s footprints. The sad truth is, ninety-nine per cent of Spanish music is simply not released outside of Spain, and even the best shops abroad tend not to stock the more interesting releases. Like practically all music sung in a non-English language, there is little call for it in the Anglo-American-dominated music business. For some reason, instrumental music suffers the same fate. But, just as the occasional writer writing in a language other than English manages to break through to a fully international readership – García Márquez, Kundera, Calvino, for instance – so is it with music. There I was, having my one-way relationship with Javier and never thinking to try and promote him. Then, in 2001, a Spanish DJ passed Javier’s new record to some movers in the world music scene in the UK, which led to appearances on UK radio and press, and some live shows. But things seldom move far without there being a record available. So here we have it: a digest, a primer, the bluffer’s guide to the untold and clandestine delights of the charmer from Cádiz – or more specifically, songs selected from his last two releases together with a new recording especially for this release of ‘La Flor De Estambul’… The renowned record producer and thinker Brian Eno was one of those who came to hear Javier Ruibal play at Ronnie Scott’s during that UK visit in late 2001. He brought along his teenage daughter, who declared afterwards that if any man sang such songs to her she would marry him immediately. Javier has this enviable effect on women. You might say it’s a fair return, in that women are his primary source of inspiration. His lyrics are peppered with appreciations of beautiful women longed for, won and lost, or simply (and hotly) admired from a distance – he has something of the flamenco’s bemused helplessness in the face, and hands, of the slippery charms of women. Just what chance does an honest man stand? Beyond this, Javier sings of and to women in a wider metaphorical sense, in order to express his love of life, using imagery sifted from African, Arabic and Caribbean landscapes and picaresque characters both real and imagined, to sing of life’s dreams, pleasures, romance, magic and heartbreak. Each song is its own miniature, the music beautifully arranged to evocative and measured Spanish love poetry (and, what is more, beautifully sung and enunciated, for rarely do you hear a Spanish lyric so clearly delivered). Spanish works so well in this way – we might expect it more from Persian poetry or Indian epics of old or, closer to home, Lorca or Albertí. It has a style and sensibility that our more brutal Anglo-Saxon language does not easily encourage, or at least you’d have to be a poet of considerable powers to translate it acceptably. This problem affects so much Spanish writing. They will use three or four adjectives where one might be used in English, set in florid and playful sentence structures. For example, someone wrote of Javier that his songs have ‘echoes and sounds reminiscent of very distant cultures of today, and very close ones in the ancient past’. You know what they mean, and it reads beautifully in Spanish, but sounds clumsily extravagant when put into English! Javier writes that Contrabando – recorded near Tarifa in April 1997 and from which eight songs are taken – ‘was recorded with the light of the Straits [of Gibraltar] flooding in through the window of the studio, with Halley’s Comet passing by every evening to draw a close to the day’s sessions. It was all enjoyable and relaxing, as it is in Cádiz.’ He still lives in his home town of Puerto de Santa María, across the Cádiz bay – sea, sun, fantastic food and wine, one of the ancient cities of Europe, a major centre of flamenco, beautiful women galore, the greatest carnival in Europe (another secret, with a satirical poetry tradition all its own, of which Javier is a big fan), with the dreamlands of Africa within hazy view. Javier, his wife Pilar and two children have a great lifestyle (when we visited, there was time for one of those epic four-hour seafood and wine lunches where you emerge blinking into the sun at 5.30 in the afternoon), and he seems relaxed about his prospects for the greater fame and acknowledgement that, particularly, his musical peers in Spain feel he so deserves. If more and more people catch on to his work, then great, but he’s not going to lose sleep over it. Maybe, way back, he would have been the court musician to Scheherazade. Who knows? But the secret, if not the genie, is now out of the bottle. We will see where it leads. David Flower 1 Isla Mujeres 4:17 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar, backing vocals: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar, Arabic lute: Tito Alcedo electric bass, handclaps: Alfonso Gamaza Latin, Arabic and African percussion: Ramón González violin: David Moreira flamenco percussion, handclaps: Diego Magallanes 2 La Reina De Africa 3:59 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar, backing vocals, percussion: Javier Ruibal flamenco guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass, percussion: Alfonso Gamaza acoustic piano, keyboards: Jesús Lavilla 3 Toíto Cái Lo Traigo Andao 4:14 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza keyboards, horn arrangement: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion: Ramón González trombone: José Guillamó 4 Vino Y Besos 3:51 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass, handclaps: Alfonso Gamaza acoustic piano, horn arrangement: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion: Ramón González flamenco percussion, handclaps: Diego Magallanes trombone: José Guillamó, Juan José Puntas trumpet: Julio Ceballos, José Manuel Bernal saxophone: José Ramón Ramos violins: The Sinfonieta de Sevilla 5 Perla De La Medina 3:49 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar, backing vocals, percussion, electric guitar: Javier Ruibal flamenco guitar, Arabic lute: Tito Alcedo electric bass, percussion: Alfonso Gamaza keyboards: Jesús Lavilla 6 Dame Tu Boca 4:07 (lyrics Mari Pau Domínguez, music Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar, percussion: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza 7 Bella En Lisboa 4:52 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal flamenco guitar: Tito Alcedo 8 Aurora 4:40 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass, handclaps: Alfonso Gamaza string arrangement: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion: Ramón González flamenco percussion, handclaps: Diego Magallanes 9 Boca De Rosa 4:28 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza acoustic piano: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion, drum kit: Ramón González mute trumpet: Manuel Machado 10 Por Malo Que Sea El Ron 3:42 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal flamenco guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza keyboards: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion, drum kit: Ramón González 11 Por La Puerta De Elvira 3:48 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar, backing vocals: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar, mandola: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza Latin, Arabic and African percussion, drum kit: Ramón González violin: David Moreira 12 El Náufrago Del Sáhara 5:06 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar, mandola, Arabic lute: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza string arrangement: Jesús Lavilla percussion: Javi Ruibal soprano saxophone: Andreas Prittwitz violins: The Sinfonieta de Sevilla 13 Tabaco Y Tinto De Verano 4:08 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar: Javier Ruibal Spanish guitar, flamenco guitar, Arabic lute, electric guitar: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza keyboards: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion, drum kit: Ramón González 14 Un Ave Del Paraíso 3:53 (Javier Ruibal) vocals, Spanish guitar, percussion: Javier Ruibal Arabic lute: Tito Alcedo electric bass: Alfonso Gamaza keyboards: Jesús Lavilla Latin, Arabic and African percussion, drum kit: Ramón González 15 La Flor De Estambul 3:35 (lyrics Javier Ruibal, music Erik Satie) vocals: Javier Ruibal pianist: Federico Lechner Special thanks to: Carlos Díaz and Javier Amorós Thanks to: Manuel Ibánez (P.D.I.), Phil Stanton, Sandra Alayón-Stanton and all at World Music Network Tracks 1, 3, 4, 8, 11, 12 from the album Las Damas Primero (18 Chulos Records 2001), published by 18 Chulos Records Tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14 from the album Contrabando (P.D.I. 1997), published by Xarel-Lo Track 15 published by Don Lucena Executive production: Carlos Díaz Production: Javier Ruibal Compiled by David Flower Tracks 1, 3, 4, 8, 11, 12 recorded, mixed and mastered at La Kaleta (Cádiz), 2001. Sound engineer: Mario Alberni Tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14 recorded at Central Tarifa (Madrid), 1997. Sound engineer: Jose Mª Sagrista Track 15 recorded and mixed at Estudios Chitón (Madrid), 2003. Sound engineer: Andrés Vázquez All songs mastered by Mario Albeni Sleeve notes: David Flower Lyrics translation: Trino Cruz Photo credits: Javier Amorós Design by Undertow, coordinated by Duncan Baker All tracks under licence from: 18 Chulos Records Spain www.18chulos.com Management: La Forma D laformad@laformad.com www.laformad.com tel: + 34 91 521 69 05 fax: +34 91 521 60 75 Booking agent/contratación: SASA MUSIC David Flower tel: + 44 (0)20 7359 9232 fax: + 44 (0)20 7359 9233 rab@sasa.demon.co.uk www.sasamusic.com Further information on Javier Ruibal, including translations of the lyrics of this album, can be found at www.worldmusic.net where you can also listen to sound samples of all World Music Network and Riverboat Records releases]]>